Losing Our Moral Compass

Just recently former Vice President Dick Cheney labeled Edward Snowden as a traitor and defended the use of the NSA data surveillance programs as a valued part of our defense against terrorists. (here) President Obama assures us that the NSA and the other parts of the Federal government are not listening to our conversations. Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, two staunch Republicans also defended the NSA and the screening and collection of the data.

On the other side of the coin are various conservative talk show hosts who view the NSA activity as everything from a breach of constitutionally mandated rights of privacy to a soft coup d’état by the liberals in government.  Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the Patriot Act, sent a letter to Eric Holder describing the seizing of phone records of millions of innocent Americans as both “excessive and un-American”. (here)

I have mixed feelings about the actions of Snowden. Some of his critics and especially the administration officials have pointed out the destination of Snowden, Hong Kong, as proof that he is just a spy for the Chinese.  Just to be clear, I have no problem with the United States spying on other countries. I would be upset if we didn’t spy on them. However, I would hope that we still have enough honorable people in government, the CIA, NSA, and the military who would raise a red flag when told to do something that is blatantly against the Constitution and the interests of the American public. It seems odd that we have decided not to “profile” people in order to pinpoint terrorist activity yet have no aversion at scooping up all of the internet traffic, facial recognition features, and telephone records of innocent Americans all in the name of preventing terrorists from doing us harm. It is also worrying that you have varying degrees of claimed successful intervention of terrorist activity from different people. It just sounds like our public servants have gotten carried away with their new toys and are now trying to justify their actions.  And of course, given the seeming propensity of this administration to use any useful information to their benefit, I think concern is warranted.

So before we allow the administration to color Snowden as a traitor of the lowest order, maybe we should ask our President and some of the Republican leadership in the Senate why they think this obvious overreach is so necessary.  My deepest fear is that this is demonstrating that my faith in our public servants at the lower echelons of service no longer have the moral compass to recognize when they are told to perform an unethical or illegal action. If your job requires you to betray your fellow countrymen, then you are in the wrong job. When you don’t sound the alarm and refuse to perform illicit activity, no matter who orders it, then you are committing the same immoral action that Snowden is accused of.